Microsoft PowerShell Tool Nears Q4 Release

According to statements on the company's PowerShell team blog, the RC, which is the final stage of testing before releasing a product to manufacturing (RTM), addresses numerous customer requests based on their evaluations of both Beta 3 and RC1.

The changes include direct support for Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) in order to simplify Active Directory administration, as well as improved support for Windows Management Instrumentation by adding the ability to change WMI properties via methods.

PowerShell 1.0 RC2 also supports additional logical operators (XOR and binary XOR) that make it easier to write sophisticated scripts. And the environment includes improved help content and help functionality such as including new views to make it easier to find the information.

Windows PowerShell 1.0 works with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and will be released to the Web in the fourth quarter of 2006. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and System Center Operations Manager 2007 will also leverage PowerShell.

Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services,, and .NET magazines. Contact him at stuartj1@mindspring.com.